There were long queues on the campuses of the various Senior High Schools (SHS) in Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti Region on Monday.
The enthusiastic parents and guardians defied a heavy downpour in the morning to escort their children to the various schools in the city.
The parents and guardians were seen helping their children to go through the registration process to benefit from the free SHS policy by the government.
The queues were very profound at the Prempeh College, Opoku Ware and Kumasi Anglican in the city.
Reports from other parts of the Ashanti Region and the country in general indicated that there were long queues in all schools on Monday morning.
Free SHS
The free SHS policy is the key manifesto promise of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, headed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to the NPP, no country in the world can develop effectively without educating its citizens.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has since 2008 given assurance that senior high education would become free for the people when elected as president.
The Ministry of Education, led by Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh aka ‘Napo,’ has fulfilled the promise by making the free SHS a reality.
Free Gifts
Most the students easily went through the process and were admitted into the schools free of charge.
All the students were also given two school uniforms each, two house dress and textbooks.
The young students were seen beaming with smiles as their parents did not pay a dime to get them enrolled into the various schools of their choice.
Owusu Ansah, Assistant Headmaster in charge of Academics, Kumasi Anglican SHS, said the government would also take care of feeding of the students.
Parents Praise Nana
All the parents that DAILY GUIDE spoke to eulogized President Akufo-Addo, with some of them tagging him as the best Ghanaian president ever.
Grace Adjei, a parent, who was spotted at the Anglican SHS, said “but for the free SHS, my child would have stayed home because I don’t have money.”
She openly prayed for God’s blessing for Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh for making SHS indeed free for Ghanaians.
On his part, Philip Bentil, who transported his child to the Anglican SHS, said now children from poor and rich homes can go to secondary school for free.
He showered praises on President Akufo-Addo and his administration, noting that free SHS policy is the best thing ever to happen to Ghanaians.
According to him, some fiendish people continually stated that the free SHS policy was impossible, but the NPP government had proved them wrong.
Juliana Antwi, who brought her child to the Prempeh College, said “this is the first time that she has directly benefitted from Ghana’s wealth after independence.
She said, “This NPP government cares about the poor in the country and I pray that they stay in political office for many years to make the masses happy.”
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